1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to treating ores with microwave energy to facilitate subsequent processing of the ores.
The present invention relates particularly, although by no means exclusively, to using microwave energy to treat ores to facilitate subsequent processing of the ores to recover valuable components, such as metals from the ores.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been a number of proposals to use microwave energy in a range of mining applications, such as comminution of ores, and there is on-going research and development work into these mining applications. However, these proposals have not been successfully used because of difficulties with (a) the high total power needed, (b) constructing a suitable arrangement to expose ores to microwaves, and (c) controlling the level of microwave exposure to avoid unwanted changes in the minerals and undesirable changes in the ore particles themselves.
An object of the present invention is to provide a microwave energy-based method of treating ores to facilitate subsequent processing of the ores to recover valuable components such as metals from the ores.